This invention relates to astragals for pivotally mounted double doors of the type that do not include a central vertical support, including panic doors, that allow the opening of either door independently of the other door.
Double doors are commonly used in many commercial buildings, and double "panic" doors are required in many public buildings such as schools, hospitals and the like. The typical panic door includes a horizontal bar-type lever which functions as a latch operator that actuates the latching rods mounted within the meeting stiles of the doors, so as to seat and unseat the latching rods in the recesses in the door sill and in the door header. These doors usually open in one direction only and each door must open independently of the other door.
A double door assembly without the vertical centerpost cannot have rigid molding which overlaps from one door to the other if each door is to be opened independently of the other door. The absence of overlapping molding leaves a space between the facing edges of the doors which permits the passage of a tool between the doors and permits the doors when locked to be "picked" or "jimmied" from outside the doors and opened.
Various astragal assemblies have been developed in an effort to make double panic doors more secure, so as to retard and possibly prevent the insertion of a tool between the meeting stiles of the door assembly; however, the prior art astragals usually include an externally mounted structure mounted to the interface of the panic doors, or a structure mounted in a channel at the edge of the meeting stiles of the doors which protrudes from the edges of the doors and is unsightly and unreliable.